Peru

South America Lima is the country's capital city, as well as a vibrant city with wonderful Peruvian cuisine and cultural history. Travelers to Peru typically fly into this sea-level coastal city before traveling on to Peru's more famous destinations at higher altitudes. One of the first stops for acclimating to the higher altitudes tends to be the Sacred Valley, or Urubamba Valley, in the highlands of the Andean mountains. Here, travelers find Spanish colonial villages, Incan ruins and architecture, well-preserved agricultural terraces with complex irrigation systems, salt mines (pans) dating back to Incan times, but still in operation, and more. Once visitors have acclimated, they frequently journey to Aguas Calientes, the stopping point for travelers going to and from Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu, probably the most renown destination in Peru and a UNESCO World Heritage site, is one of the world’s most significant archaeological discoveries in recent history because of the amount of knowledge it has revealed about Inca civilization At yet higher elevations, visitors often spend time in Cusco, formerly a capital city, but now known for Incan archaeological ruins and Spanish colonial architecture. Lake Titicaca is one of South America's largest lakes and the world's highest navigable lake. Bordering Peru and Bolivia, it is home to both natural islands, made of earth, and man-made islands, made of reeds that grow at the bottom of the lake. Residents of these floating Uros Islands, or "Reed Islands", harvest the reeds from the lake and use them to build and maintain the islands, their homes, boats, furniture, and most everything they need to live on the islands. Finally, Sillustani is a pre-Incan cemetery used for Colla nobility on the shores of Lake Umayo near Puno in Peru.